The Dark Side Of CPA Marketing

Posted by Tony Rocha
7
Jul 12, 2011
1521 Views
There is a lot of money to be made from CPA Marketing, but there is also a dark side that many people do not know about or maybe refuse to believe. The problem with the CPA industry is that it can be very unethical. There is no formal governing organization to regulate the industry.

There are essentially three distinct groups that make up the relationship of CPA:

* Advertisers

* Publishers (Affiliates)

* Cost Per Action Networks

A CPA Network works as a middleman between advertisers and publishers. The problem starts when one of these decides to cheat the others.

Let Me Explain:

If you visit some Forums (usually Black Hat related) you will find many Affiliates showing other Affiliates how to cheat leads out of both the CPA Networks and its Advertisers.

There are many ways to fool or force someone to complete a CPA Offer that is not only dishonest but also illegal. Trying to cheat leads from a CPA Network would get you banned or even worse Blacklisted from the industry.

The Direct Track Platform allows all of the CPA Networks using their System to post their Banned Members for all to see. So if you get banned from one network which uses this Direct Track Platform, you may have difficulty getting signed up to other CPA Networks because your reputation will be known.

The harsh reality is when these Affiliates cheat the CPA Networks this affects other Publishers by a reduced Payout or a higher scrub level (the process of where leads are reversed).

When you join a CPA Network you are essentially putting all your trust into that Network and its tracking system to pay 100% for all the Leads generated.

Unfortunately this is not always the case…

A lot of CPA Networks will shave off leads to ensure that their Profit Levels are kept to a maximum. Most Affiliates do not realize that most of the Cost Per Action Networks using the Direct Track Platform have a built in feature for shaving leads.

This Feature can be set at what ever level they like. For example, they may set it at 10% for a certain CPA Offer meaning the Affiliate will not get credit for every 10th Lead. This is how some Networks pay higher than others because they can afford to by shaving leads.

This next bit is important:

In order to ensure you get credit for the Leads you generate by your Offers you must Split Test Different Networks with similar or identical Offers. If one CPA Network offers a higher payout than the other for a specific Offer it may mean they shave more often than its competitor and overall you may earn more promoting a Survey with a lesser payout as you will not be shaved as much.

I have seen virtually identical CPA Offers on different networks perform very differently using the exact same Marketing Campaigns which means a blatent shaving of leads.

An Advertiser can also shave leads by ensuring that a CPA Networks Pixel is not triggered at certain times. A pixel is either JavaScript or an image tag that when triggered reports back to the Network that a lead has been generated.

“Why wouldn’t an Advertiser Shave Leads? It Saves them Money!”

The CPA Industry has already gained the attention of the FTC and the Attorney Generals of many States. Look at the whole recent “ringtones” fiasco that had some CPA Networks paying out as much as $1million to settle lawsuits related to false “free ringtone” marketing.

Most Email Submit Offers put the prospect through co-registration hell by sending many spam related Emails trying to get them to pay for something making the users email account useless because of all the Spam.

Have you ever read the small print on some of these free offers that require an email address? They usually require the participant to fill out three gold offers, two silver offers, two bronze offers and then refer five family members to do the same before they can get the free prize.

“The Small Print is Small for a reason!”

Advertisers can also refuse to pay the CPA Networks for Leads generated which may result in you not getting payed. If you read the “Terms and Conditions” of the majority of Networks, they indicate that if they are not payed by the Advertiser then you will not be payed.

Stick to the Bigger Networks as they can afford to pay you out of their own pockets if an Advertiser refuses payment.

There are actually CPA Networks who cheat their Affiliates by setting up Similar Landing Pages to yours if they are converting. These CPA Networks have their own in-house Search Team so you are basically showing them what is working for you so they can implement their own and rip you off.

Don’t get too close to your Affiliate Manager:

Think about it! If you are making $100,000 a Month on a CPA Network and you have shown your Affiliate Manager your Campaigns then they will be more than tempted to steal your ideas and make their own money, after all the CPA Network will not be paying them anywhere near as much as you are earning.

If I were to give you any Advice it would be to make sure your dealing with a CPA Network that genuinely cares about your Business and your well-being rather than how much money you can make for them.


by Nick

Comments (1)
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Mattie Williams
6

Affiliate Marketing And Design

This is very informative information about how CPA offers works. I see what you say there is also a dark side.

Jul 12, 2011 Like it
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